The Portland daily press., 1887-09-05
UNIVERSITY WOMEN IN ENGLAND.
The Z st Classical Scholars "Reaten
Out II Sight" by Miss A. r. Ram
saw.


This years Cambridge classical tripos will
long be remembered for what it does and
for what it does not include. In the first di-
vision of the first class there is no place Civ
en- to any of the male competitors. The va
cancy is occupied by Girton student, Miss
A. +. Ramsay, who thus stands in the proud
position of senior classic of the year, the one
candidate deemed worthy of the highest first
class honors. This is a really wonderful
achievement. Miss Ramsay has been pitted
against the best classical scholars from our
best public schools, and she has beaten them
on their own ground. More even than this,
she has proved herself better than any of
them by the difference Of an entire division.
She is not simply first in division to which
other candidates have been admitted. She,
and she alone, is in the first division at all.
This is a special honor which no male stu
dent has ever attained. In no former year
has the distinction between first and second
classic been so clearly marked. The class
list has told only who has been the first. The
second classic may have trodden very close
on the heels of his successful rival, and it
has been always open to his friends to claim
that he has been only just not the first, and
that with very little change of luck the two
names might have come out in different or
will not be dimmed by any such criticism as
this. She is first without a second. The
next in rank comes whole division below
her. 1t deserves notice, too that in the me-
di@val and modern languages tripos like
honor has been gained by q Newman stu
dent. In that list Miss r. NJ. Hervey is in
the first class, while among the male candi-
dates there is no one who takes more than q
second class. 1t has been a lady's year at
Cambridge. Miss Hervey has distinguished
hnr CAIt kx-r. Nrds ItaaD Do
say has done what no senior classic; before
her has ever done. The great names of Ken
nedy, Lushington, Wordsworth, Maine, and
more recently Of Butler and Jebb have come
first in he classical tripos: Miss Ramsay
alone has been placed in a division to which
no one but herself has been found deserving
Of admittance.
This two-fold victory Of Girton and Of
Newman comes very opportunely to sup
port petition about to be presented to the
vice chancellor and Senate, praying that duly
qualified women may be admitted to Cam
bridge university degrees. The petitioners
complain with reason that although women
are examined at Cambridge, and are found
to satisfy every condition which entities an
undergraduate to degree, the degree. itself
name Of justice and of expediency, that this
disqualification should cease. They will be
able now to appear not as humble petitioners,
but as well capable Of enforcing their de-
mand. 1t will be favor shown, not to the
women, but to the men If the two sexes have
the same recognition accorded to them. What
glory can 1t be to the senior classic OF this
OF Of any future year to bear the title which
she must share with the merest passman? 1t
will be rather condescension on her part to
accept degree which she has so much more
than deserved. But if the women are thus
minded, and II the degree which they wish
for Is refused, their very obvious remedy
will be to create degrees OF their own and to
grant them to such men as they may think
worthy to be their associates. A senior clas-
sic has no need to 90 begging for merely nom
inal honors. IL there is any difficulty In the
way, IL any obstacle on the part OF the Cam
bridge Senate or any more subtle rennement
forbids her the right to term herself Dache-
more significant Of the distinction which
she has won, and she can bear 1t without
fear of challenge from her distanced rivals.
The real question must henceforth be not
what the Senate may be pleased to grant, but
what the women may deign graciously to ac-
cept.
In the customary sketch which we give OF
the senior classics early career IL Will be
seen that she began to study Greek in 1888,
and the class list will be sufficient evidence
that she has been at no fatal disadvantage
from making SO late a start. The point Is
worth notice from its bearing on the study oi
Greek at our public schools. No one has
yentured to think that four years work
could be enough TO make senior classic.
We have proof now that it is ample. Most
of Miss Ramsay's competitors will have
taken IA years to do less than she has con-
trived to do in four years. 1t Is no unfair
inference that great deal Of their early
work has been wasted. The truth is, boys
begin. Latin and Greek sooner than they
| need, and at a time when the study Of the
classical language was not possible for them,
| except in its baldest and most forbidding
| shape. They learn rules of grammar by
| heart, and master declensions and conjunc-
| tions by sheer memory, quickened by fear Of
| the stick. The work is hateful to them, and
| it is very questionable whether they get any
good from it at all corresponding to the
strain which it implies and 10 the narrownes:
method may be right or wrong. Old Roger
| Ascham has pronounced strongly against it
and Miss Ramsay's example suggests apos
| sibility that men may have something u
learn even in the management OF a depart
ment of study which they have claimed as
| peculiarly their own.